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At the beginning of the space age there were,
of course, no manned made objects in orbit
about the earth, but today the United States space surveillance network
is tracking over 20,000 large objects
ranging from four inches in diameter up to tens of meters in length.
However, this is just the tip of the iceberg.
The hazardous population of debris in orbit
about the earth now numbers in the millions
and it is these reasons that we need to evaluate
the growth of the debris in the environment,
which continues to increase with each year
and to develop both national
and international policies that will curtail that growth.